Over 500 rebels killed in Syria’s Latakia
Clashes between the Syrian army and armed militant groups in the country’s northwestern province of Latakia have claimed over 500 rebels’ lives since March 21, media reported.
More than 500 rebels were killed in the battle, most of them Saudis and Chechens, on the the border with Turkey in Latakia as the rebels failed to seize control of any of the areas they have targeted, Xinhua reported citing al-Watan newspaper.
The battle started March 21 when large numbers of armed militant groups infiltrated the Syrian territories from the Turkish side of the border.
The rebels are staging hit-and-run attacks in Kasab without achieving any gains on ground, according to the report.
Scores killed in string of Iraq attacks
More than 80 people, including 41 soldiers, killed across the country, just weeks before first national poll since 2010.
Violence across Iraq has killed more than 80 people, including 41 soldiers, and left scores more injured, amid the country’s worst protracted period of unrest since 2008.
The bloodshed on Tuesday comes just weeks before Iraq is due to hold its first national vote since 2010, though the poll was thrown into disarray earlier when the entire electoral commission resigned over political interference.
In the deadliest attack, 22 soldiers were killed and 15 others injured in al-Nibaee village, near Taji city, north of Baghdad.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital, said the convoy came under intense fire and was hit by roadside bombs.
“We haven’t seen an attack like this in about six to eight months,” our correspondent said. “We don’t know how many gunmen were involved in the attack.
“But it certainly must have been a significant number with the death toll we have seen.”
Pakistan condemns killing of abducted Iranian border guard by militants
BY MEHREEN ZAHRA-MALIK
ISLAMABAD Wed Mar 26, 2014 12:56pm EDT
(Reuters) – Pakistan has condemned the killing by Sunni Muslim militants of one of five Iranian border guards they have been holding hostage for the past six weeks, the foreign office said on Wednesday.
The guards were seized while patrolling the lawless frontier with Pakistan in early February. Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), an Iranian Sunni Muslim rebel group in Sistan-Baluchistan province later claimed responsibility.
The group said on its website on Sunday that it had killed the border guard.
“Pakistan is deeply saddened over the reported killing of one of the five Iranian border guards,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“We condemn this terrorist act, and share the grief and agony of the families of the martyr and the other border guards.”
Attacks in Afghanistan kill at least 17
26 Mar 2014
Afghan forces secure the perimeter near an election commission office during an attack by militants in Kabul.A group of Taliban insurgents, including two suicide bombers, stormed an office of the election commission in the Afghan capital Tuesday, killing six people, around the same time as two other suicide bombers killed six members of the Afghan security forces in an eastern province.
In a third attack, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vest during an athletic competition, killing five people.
The attacks come less than two weeks before a crucial presidential vote that the militants have threatened to derail.
Seven Taliban fighters attacked a building in southwestern Kabul used by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan. Workers were trapped inside for several hours, according to the deputy interior minister, Ayoub Salangi.
“We had only two police officers who lost their lives in the initial explosion caused by one of the suicide bombers,” Salangi said over the phone from the scene after the attack.
Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said two civilians, an official of the election commission and a candidate for the provincial council also were killed in the attack.
Yemen attack on military checkpoint ‘kills 20 soldiers’
Twenty Yemeni soldiers have been killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in eastern Yemen, reports say.
Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency reports the attack took place in the province of Hadramawt.
Security sources earlier said eight had died and six were wounded in an attack that one source attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Yemeni military has been tackling a powerful al-Qaeda insurgency in the province in recent years.
Hadramawt is a centre of oil production and seen as a stronghold for AQAP, which has been waging a campaign against the Western-backed government.
“Twenty soldiers were killed in the armed attack on an army checkpoint” near Reida, about 135km (85 miles) east of the provincial capital Mukalla, Saba reported.
One source told the AFP news agency that the attack was carried out by gunmen in several vehicles.
More here.
